My daughter attended a mindfulness retreat on the Washington coast last summer through Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme). It is a national organization but some of the instructors live in Seattle. My daughter had a tremendous experience there. She felt completely accepted as a person. As she put it, “I liked everybody and everybody liked me!”
That’s a powerful experience for anybody but especially for a teen. The instructors for the retreat are volunteers. Two of them continue having teen mindfulness meetings every month in Seattle. That is also free.
I thought about sending them a note of gratitude but there are so many of them on their website, testimonials from grateful families. Then I thought about their whole volunteer set up and how tremendously talented they must be for so many teens to have such a wonderful experience.
So I set up a small but meaningful donation to repeat every month to help keep this group going.
Check out the group at the link above. They have teen and adult retreats. I would love to go to one of the adult retreats one day. Right now they are all on the East Coast, which would mean taking off an additional two days for travel time.
I have a fourteen-year-old grandson, I plan to share this post with my daughter. The overall quality of my life has improved through mindfulness and meditation. The information I find as a blogger has been life-changing. Thank you for sharing.
That’s super, Yvonne! Also, your grandson might appreciate an introduction to mindfulness. Here’s a link to my favorite mindfulness recording, which happens to be designed for teens: http://shop.wildmind.org/Mindfulness-Meditations-for-Teens-by-Bodhipaksa-digital-download/
oh, my, Elizabeth! what a wonderful way to Pay It Forward, setting up a monthly donation to the Inward Bound Mindfulness Education group in appreciation for your sweet daughter’s positive and exciting experience – I bet they will be so thankful for such a generous gesture. it would be my pleasure to have you come stay with me if you should have the chance to attend a retreat located on the mid-
Atlantic area of the east coast; we could actually meet IN PERSON!!!
with much love and gratitude, (the tears falling down my face now)
Karen XOXOXOXO
Karen, you live in the mid-Atlantic region? I do visit WA, DC from time to time. I would love to meet you!